President Anura Kumara Dissanayake will send a formal letter to the King of Saudi Arabia requesting clemency for Anojan Sivarasa, and the Government is considering sending a special parliamentary delegation to deliver the appeal in person.

Foreign Minister Vijitha Herath announced it in Parliament on Tuesday, NewsFirst reported, in the special statement he had promised on Monday. EconomyNext reported the same day that Sri Lanka is seeking clemency after the Saudi court sentenced the migrant worker to death.

Herath said Sri Lanka is pursuing legal, diplomatic and consular avenues simultaneously, seeking a pardon, a sentence reduction, or any other relief available under Saudi law.

The chronology, stated officially for the first time

Until today the case had been reported in fragments, sourced to ministry officials, the family and lawyers. Herath gave Parliament a continuous account:

The appeal that raised the sentence was not only his

This is the point the early reporting got closest to inverting. Herath told Parliament that while Sivarasa’s lawyers sought a reduction, Saudi prosecutors had separately filed their own appeal seeking a harsher penalty — and that regardless of whether Sivarasa’s side had appealed at all, the prosecution had already challenged the original sentence as insufficient.

The death sentence was therefore not a consequence of his own appeal. Our earlier coverage carried the reported framing that the sentence was raised “on his own appeal”; the minister’s account corrects it.

A standing question is now closed

Since Friday the open question in this case has been whether the written judgment had actually reached anyone. Herath told Parliament the formal written judgment was received through legal counsel and transmitted to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It has arrived.

Who is paying

Two President’s Counsel — Upul Kumarapperuma and Faiszer Musthapha — have agreed to travel to Saudi Arabia at their own expense to work with local counsel.

Because Sivarasa was registered with the Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment, Herath said the Government will bear all legal costs incurred in Saudi Arabia and reimburse what the family has already paid. Registration with the Bureau, often treated as a formality by departing workers, is what makes the state liable for the bill here.

The embassy in Riyadh remains in direct contact with Sivarasa and has been instructed to urgently establish what appeal or review mechanisms remain before the Saudi Supreme Court and other judicial authorities.

One date does not match

Herath places the appeal filing on 24 August. The Daily Mirror’s earlier account described an appeal memorandum filed to the Eastern Region appellate court on 25 August. The discrepancy is one day and neither account has been corrected.

Update, 7 October: Saudi Arabia sets a condition on the clemency appeal

Two of the open questions below have since been answered, and the answer qualifies this article’s headline.

Foreign Minister Vijitha Herath told Parliament on 7 October that Saudi authorities have informed the Sri Lankan government that any request for clemency should be made only after the legal proceedings conclude, because the case has been referred to the Supreme Court — and that they would not approve any intervention in the judicial process, the Daily Mirror reported.

So the President’s pledge stands, but it is now sequenced rather than immediate: the letter to the King cannot be sent while the courts are still seized of the case. Herath gave 17 October as the final date for the ongoing legal process, after which the government will decide on sending a special diplomatic delegation to seek release or a reduced sentence. A four-member Sri Lankan legal delegation including Additional Solicitor General Azard Navavi, PC, was in Saudi Arabia preparing a Supreme Court appeal.

That also answers the question below on whether Saudi authorities had responded to any Sri Lankan approach: they had, and the response set this condition. The running coverage is in Anojan Sivarasa moved to a new cell after an altercation at Dammam Prison.

Not reported

NewsFirst does not say what the social media post said, whether the Supreme Court route is still open or time-barred, who would make up the parliamentary delegation, or — as of the original filing — whether Saudi authorities have responded to any Sri Lankan approach. No execution date is reported. (See the 7 October update above, which answers the timing of the letter to the King and the question of a Saudi response.)

Sources